Passenger Trains > Zephyr returns to 2 Sleepers

Im happy to report that the Zephyr has re-acquired its 2nd Sleeping car, after the last several months running with just one, lone sleeper in a sad, little six car line up, I was happy to see the 2nd Sleeper has returned to the summer line up. Still only seven cars, and they could easily judtify adding a 3rd coach, based on the amount of passengers who boarded #5 last night.

My wife and I wanted to do something fun to enjoy the beautiful evening last night, so we walked across the street to the Amtrak depot to watch #5 come in. It wad a HUGE group of passengers boarding #5 last night. There were so many people boarding the train last night that the sorry-excuse for a train station that serves as Omaha's "Am-Shack" waiting room was, Literally, standing room only!

Enjoy the video and feel free to check out and Subscribe to my channel on YouTube called "OmahaTom" for lots more of my railroad videos!

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Tom Loftus
Omaha, NE



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/23 19:18 by OmahaTom.

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Tom Loftus
Omaha, NE

The California Zephyr would normally have a THIRD sleeper line by now AND a THIRD coach by now. This is still an anemic consist, but better. Again, just a shuffle of cars to the Western Long Hauls at Auto Train and Capitol Limited expense it seems. NO major "net adds" to the consists in the system. In the course of three years,

Gunn certainly had his faults, but he was railroader and put forth a wreck-rebuild program of Superliners at Beech Grove and Amfleets at Bear. He was able to tackle Warrington's horrendous backlog of equipment and car after car on teh RIP line. A program was put forth to restore and overhaul most of the Superliner I's (sleepers especially - "the new bathroom modules"), let alone overhaul and standardize the Amfleet cars (into three main categories - down from about six different varieties), and standardize the liveries across the system with Superliners, Horizons, Amfleets, etc. We also finally saw the page turned to get out of hte 1980s - the interiors came out of the 1980s orange and browns at last. That's just with equipment. Multiple Amtrak facilities were mobilized... 

We've not seen anything close to that output in recent times. Not even close!!!! I understand there's major labor issues and institutional knowledge that was lost in the crafts positions. But how long can one use that line. It's been too long as it is. I work in logistics and operations. I understand - and I've seen first hand the Cardinal deliver cars up to Chicago from Beech Grove. But then things seem to go into some black hole. The Capitol Limited is roaming the system with essentially one revenue sleeper and one revenue coach. I am also to the point - why bother run it? Amtrak won't discontinue the train, but its worst than Penn Central, who is anyone kidding!

Where is RPA or NARP or whatever they are calling themselves. You mean to tell me there's not three Superliner Trans/Dorm Sleepers that could be used in Chicago to at least add some roomette capacity? What about run-throughs again to better utilize equipment (re-scheduling the Capitol Limited to the Lake Shore Limited spot if needed)? Hard to believe creative solutions have not emerged. Just look at the Viewliner Sleeper fleet (I's and II's) - over 50% of the fleet is sidelined and not in assigned regular service. What European, Asian, or private railroad would put up with this? Where's the watchdog advocacy groups and Amtrak OIG? 

VERY hard to reconcile all this at the start of summer 2023. 

Management has changed the excuse from a labor shortage  to the cars are now economically not viable, hence why basically nothing is getting done and we have less cars than last summer on the tracks. The new distance order is another farse don't expect an actual order from this management or bod. Their motives are clear people need to wake up.

Flyer92122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Management has changed the excuse from a labor
> shortage  to the cars are now economically not
> viable, hence why basically nothing is getting
> done and we have less cars than last summer on the
> tracks. The new distance order is another farse
> don't expect an actual order from this management
> or bod. Their motives are clear people need to
> wake up.

Since management already acknowledges that new cars are probably 10 years away, are we supposed to operate with a bare minimum Amtrak for the next decade while they mess around getting new equipment? If they keep parking cars instead of fixing them, they soon won’t have enough to run the system. Then what happens? Plus these cars were bought with taxpayer money, and they are certainly viable to be repaired and used for another decade. Instead, we have $1 billion of equipment sitting idle, much of it needing minor repairs. When will the insanity end?

Posted from iPhone

It will end when we get management that doesn't want to dismantle the long distance network. No one at all should be giving them the benefit of the doubt now. I think they are banking on (hoping to) discontinue some trains this coming year with the coming cut in funding from House Republicans. Even with cuts the money is should be sufficient to run the network, but count on managaments bogus accounting to make things interesting. How "Amtrak Joe" and "Mayor Pete" aren't doing anything to remove them is beyond me. In fact they renominated the BOD so maybe the whole Amtrak Joe thing is a farce. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/23 06:45 by Flyer92122.

What am I not understanding? The Zephyr has been operating with two sleepers for months. I know this from watching the railcam at Galesburg on a near-daily basis. The usual consist has been: 2 locos (P42s), a baggage car, two sleepers, one diner, one sightseer lounge and two coaches. I'm all in favor of adding an additional sleeper (and coach for that matter). That would bring it to 3 sleepers, not 2. 

Apparently management is parking 10 transition sleepers so it's replacing a transition sleeper. 

OnTime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What am I not understanding? The Zephyr has been
> operating with two sleepers for months. I know
> this from watching the railcam at Galesburg on a
> near-daily basis. The usual consist has been: 2
> locos (P42s), a baggage car, two sleepers, one
> diner, one sightseer lounge and two coaches. I'm
> all in favor of adding an additional sleeper (and
> coach for that matter). That would bring it to 3
> sleepers, not 2. 

The Zephyr had been running with: 

Superliner Trans/Dorm Sleeper
Superliner Sleeper - 1
Superliner Diner
Superliner Sightseer Lounge
Superliner Coach
Superliner Coach

Now they've added the second sleeper back, while supposedly looking to retain the Supleriner Trans/Dorm Sleeper as well:

Superliner Trans Dorm/Sleeper
Superliner Sleeper - 1
Superliner Sleeper - 2
Superliner Diner
Superliner Sightseer Lounge
Superliner Coach
Superliner Coach

The more traditional summer consist would be (pre-2017):

Superliner Trans Dorm/Sleeper
Superliner Sleeper - 1
Superliner Sleeper - 2
Superliner Sleeper - 3
Superliner Diner
Superliner Sightseer Lounge
Superliner Coach
Superliner Coach

Flyer92122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Apparently management is parking 10 transition
> sleepers so it's replacing a transition sleeper. 


And your source for this claim?

At least No. 5 in that video's a normal passenger train, I'm hoping they can do that with The Chief soon, I'm tired of seeing it look like The Desert Wind!

Nice the CZ has a baggage car. Acts as a sound buffer for sleeper passengers who are spending 💰 to ride.

OnTime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What am I not understanding? The Zephyr has been
> operating with two sleepers for months. I know
> this from watching the railcam at Galesburg on a
> near-daily basis. The usual consist has been: 2
> locos (P42s), a baggage car, two sleepers, one
> diner, one sightseer lounge and two coaches. I'm
> all in favor of adding an additional sleeper (and
> coach for that matter). That would bring it to 3
> sleepers, not 2. 

thank you "On time."  Thought I was hallucinating " was that a missing sleeper, an extra sleeper, the same, or wtf?